Christopher Andrew

Christopher Andrew, Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cambridge University, is the Official Historian of MI5.

MI5 and Jeremy Corbyn

In a wide-ranging interview by journalist and fellow historian, Simon Heffer, Professor Christopher Andrew was asked whether he thought MI5 and MI6 would be reluctant to tell Jeremy Corbyn, should he become prime minister, all he ought to know. Professor Andrew replied:

“I simply think that however unfortunate it is, the constitution has it that if the prime minister wishes to be informed, the prime minister is informed. One question is how far Corbyn would wish to be informed. It doesn’t seem a subject that engages his attention. There are some people in the shadow cabinet who have called for the closing-down of MI5.”

But would the Americans share sensitive intelligence under a Corbyn administration?

“I can’t imagine the special relationship being the same. But it would be part of a broader problem. Does he believe in NATO? So it’s the whole of Western defence, and not just the intelligence angle of it, that would be the problem. Nothing I have heard him say gives me any confidence – whether about his understanding of the Cold War, or of Venezuela. It is a deeply eccentric view of international relations.”[1]